The Book
by nhsweetcherry
Summary: Scott, Virgil, John and Alan learn something that they had never known about Gordon! One-shot.


_I'm on a roll! (ScribeofRed, this isn't the promised story…this is a different one that waylaid me and wouldn't leave me alone until it was written!)_

 _Again, the Thunderbirds are not mine, and I am making no profit from this story._

Scott and Virgil Tracy suddenly broke off their video conversation with John to stare quizzically toward the lounge entrance.

"What?" John asked, his view somewhat limited by the computer screen. After a moment, though, the thing that had caught his brothers' attention came into his field of vision, and he too quirked an eyebrow. "What's up, Al?"

Alan shushed him. He had slithered around the doorframe, and now was tiptoeing along the edge of the room, craning his neck to look all around. A thick book was tucked under one arm. In a stage whisper, he demanded, "Where's Gordon?"

Scott gestured out the window with a thumb. "Doing his laps in the pool."

"Like he always does this time of the day," Virgil couldn't resist adding.

Alan straightened up, looking embarrassed, and spoke in a normal tone of voice. "Oh. Right. Well, that's good, because I have something to show you, and I don't want him to know about it. And you know how hard it is to keep a secret from Gordon!"

Virgil and Scott were staring intently at him.

"Alan," Scott asked after a moment. "I know you're young, but you seem to have a – er – _particularly_ youthful glow this morning."

Virgil snickered. "Yeah, one might even say that you're _sparkling_!"

Alan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Gordon put glitter in my shampoo – and my body wash – and on my bar of soap – and in my spare shampoo…you get the picture." He cast a stern glance toward his three brothers, all of whom were close to losing it. "Before you laugh, remember the licorice laces in place of shoelaces?" That sobered Scott up. "The caviar mixed in the cottage cheese?" Virgil suddenly turned rather green. "The time he hacked into Five's sound system and played the 'Yellow Submarine' song all day?"

John visibly flinched. "What's your point, Allie?"

A grin suddenly breaking out on his face, Alan held up the book he was holding. " _This_ is my point," he said. "With this at our fingertips, we can unite and take back control of our showers – our refrigerators – our sound systems…and make Gordon _pay!_ "

"Wow, dramatic much?" Virgil muttered.

They studied the cover of the book – a hefty hardcover.

" ' _The Ultimate Guide to Pranking: From Basic to Epic, the Only Pranking Book You'll Ever Need,_ '" Scott read aloud.

"By Tracy Nodrog," Virgil added.

John got a funny look on his face. "Who's the author?" he asked.

"Tracy Nodrog," Virgil repeated. "Yeah, weird name."

Alan flipped the book open. "I got this the last time I was on the mainland, but I hid it and forgot about it – until this morning."

They dropped onto the couch and flipped through page after page of positively brilliant pranks, most illustrated with stick-figure drawings that, while simple, managed to quite effectively communicate how the prank was supposed to work.

"Gordon's done that one," Scott commented, just a couple pages in.

"And that one," Alan added, two pages later.

"And that one," Virgil said, grimacing at the next page.

This theme continued, someone remembering something from nearly every page.

Alan looked up, worried. "You don't think Gordon has the same book, do you?"

"Well, it does say it's the only pranking book you'll ever need," Virgil said. "I can see how that would appeal to him – especially since he's not really into books."

John abruptly let out a bark of laughter, and they realized that he had been quiet for a while.

"What's up, Johnny?" Virgil asked.

A huge grin spread across his face, John said, "Tracy Nodrog. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Scott frowned. "No. Should it?"

"Well, the name Tracy is pretty straightforward, but what happens if you spell 'Nodrog' backwards?" He sat back to enjoy the expressions on his brothers' faces as it sank in.

All three of their jaws dropped.

" 'Nodrog' – _Gordon_ ," Alan whispered. "No way! Just – just – no way!"

"This is hundreds of pages long," Scott said, astounded.

"And illustrated!" Virgil pointed out.

Alan flipped to the back of the book. "Hey, check out the 'About the Author.'"

" 'Tracy Nodrog, as the world's foremost prankster, has devoted his life to the advancement of his noble art. He lives on a secluded island with his test subjects in order to minimize distraction, and spends the majority of his days perfecting his techniques and cataloguing the results. In his spare time, he likes to swim.'"

The brothers sat in stunned silence for a long moment.

Alan snorted. "Test subjects!"

"Cataloguing the results?" Virgil said. "So somewhere on this island, he has – what, a file cabinet, full of notes?"

"Video files," Scott pointed out. "There must be dozens – or even _hundreds_ of videos."

"Look out!" John suddenly exclaimed.

They spun around to see Gordon standing right behind them, still in his swim trunks and with a towel draped around his neck. He jumped and tried to hide a pitcher of water behind his back. "Oh, hi, guys," he said innocently. "Whatcha got there?"

Wordlessly, Alan held up the book.

Gordon's face went suddenly rather pale, and he gulped as he took in his brothers' stern expressions. "Well, I've just remembered that Four needs some servicing. See you later!" he said quickly, and started to back away.

Scott was faster, though. He reached out and caught Gordon's arm; with a little help from Virgil and Alan, they dragged Gordon over the back of the couch and squeezed him in between them, holding him down so he couldn't escape.

"I'm getting the couch wet," he yelped.

"That's all right," Scott said smoothly. "We don't mind. Just tell us about this book, Gordy."

"Yeah, how did you keep it a secret from all of us?" Virgil demanded.

To their surprise, he looked more sober than guilty. "Look at the publication date," he said quietly.

Alan turned the pages. "That was – oh. That was after your hydrofoil accident."

Suddenly the brothers' grip on Gordon became quite a bit more gentle.

"Dad knew about it," Gordon said. "In fact, it was his idea. When I woke up after the accident, I was stuck in bed for weeks with nothing to do. I was bored out of my skull, so he came up with the idea. At first, he had to do the writing, but when I recovered enough to do it myself, he got me all the paper and pencils that I needed. After it was done, he had it edited and sent to the publishers." A familiar mischievous twinkle reappeared in Gordon's eyes. "He even helped me come up with some of the pranks in the book."

"Gordon, that's amazing," John said sincerely. "And I thought I was the only published author in the family!"

"Of course," Alan said slowly, "you do realize that we now know all your secrets?"

Gordon smiled placidly. "Alan, that was published years ago. Do you really think that the world's foremost prankster would be limited by the ideas in one three-hundred-page book? Especially when he's trapped on an island with his test subjects?"

"Trapped is right," Scott growled, tightening his grip once again. "It's convenient for you that you're still in your swim trunks, because I think you're about to go for another swim!"

Gordon accepted his fate philosophically as he was hauled to his feet and dragged outside by his brothers. John's image jumped from screen to screen along the way – he didn't want to miss this.

"Not very creative, really," he said calmly as they stepped up the edge of the pool. "Especially when you have such a valuable resource at your fingertips. Alan, check out pages 161-203 –"

His words were cut off by a tremendous splash as his three brothers heaved him with all their might into the center of the pool. They watched him sink to the bottom, satisfied smiles on their faces.

Scott's smile suddenly turned to a suspicious frown. "Hey, what's that he's got?"

Gordon burst back up out of the water, holding a long, tubular device that was pointed in their direction – a water cannon!

Scott, Virgil and Alan raised their hands defensively – as if that would do them any good! In seconds, they were nearly as wet as Gordon, who ducked underwater again.

They flinched as he reappeared near their feet, but he didn't have the water cannon this time.

"Drop something, Al?" he asked with a grin, holding up a large, very wet book.

Alan sadly took his ruined prank book. He stared at it for a moment before shrugging. "Oh, well – when you can't beat them, I guess you just have to join them!"

And with one tremendous shove, he sent both Scott and Virgil flying into the pool.

"Way to go, Sprout!" Gordon shouted. "Here!" He tossed Alan a large squirt gun and prepared his water cannon as their two sputtering brothers surfaced.

John watched from a video camera as Scott and Virgil chased Gordon around the pool, while Alan ran around the outside edge and squirted them in the face if they got too close to catching him. Eventually, Scott distracted Alan long enough for Virgil to climb out of the pool and push Alan in too.

Smiling, John switched his video feed to his father's office. "Hey, Dad," he said. "Tracy Nodrog mean anything to you?"

Jeff Tracy let out a bark of laughter. "So that's finally come out, has it?"

"Gordon said you helped him come up with some of the pranks. Surely you didn't use up _all_ your prank ideas? Care to share a couple?"

Jeff smirked and sat back in his office chair. "All right, here's a good one…"


End file.
